KAYAK Enterprise: Reimagine corporate travel
Reimagine corporate travel. Increase employee satisfaction with a personalized corporate travel management experience by PwC, KAYAK and Blockskye.
1M+
PwC bookings made in the first 20 months using the new online tool
10%
reduction in intermediary fees on a typical airline ticket
30%
improvement in call answer time for travel agent support
The new booking tool offers a single source of truth, near real-time reporting and data transparency
SITUATION
PwC aims to transform employee travel booking experience and drive efficiencies
PwC’s Procurement, Travel and Finance teams decided it was time to rethink how PwC booked corporate travel, an endeavor that dovetailed with the firm’s MY+ strategy to enhance the employee experience. Whenever its employees had to travel for business, they were required to book through a cumbersome travel system that relied upon multiple back-end travel intermediaries — each of which increased the cost of travel for PwC. The complexity of the system made it difficult to answer a seemingly simple question: If a PwC employee spends $1,000 on travel, where do costs go?
While this type of corporate travel system is standard at most organizations, it seemed outdated in an era when leisure travelers can make online reservations with minimal friction – and at times, lower costs. Beyond lacking transparency, PwC’s legacy travel system tended to be inflexible and often confused users. Given the scale of travel at PwC, the need to solve these pain points was evident. For example, if PwC employees needed to change reservations, they could do so only through the system used to book it — not directly with an airline or hotel. Airlines sometimes listed certain flights only on leisure travel websites or their own domains; when PwC employees didn’t have access to book these flights, it effectively limited their options and often increased company costs. Issues like these led to increased demand for call center support and the risk of employee violations to book company travel outside the system.
The team also realized that beyond the booking process itself, inefficiencies extended into reporting and compliance. At the end of a trip, employees were required to fill out lengthy expense reports documenting travel costs, even if the trip had been booked according to PwC policy through the appropriate system.
This system was entrenched at the firm. It was essential to get leadership buy-in from the beginning to reinvent the corporate travel experience for the modern era. The Procurement, Travel and Finance teams defined its challenge: Improve the corporate traveler’s experience while reducing costs.
SOLUTION
A user-friendly booking tool, built on blockchain
Building a coalition of innovators
PwC began by seeking out relationships with companies that could help build a better corporate travel booking platform — one that took advantage of new technologies to streamline and simplify what had become a dated and burdensome system. PwC approached Blockskye, a company working to integrate blockchain technology into travel bookings and payment systems. For travel management company services, PwC turned to KAYAK, a trusted brand in customer-friendly leisure travel. Together, the three organizations set out to customize a fast, flexible, user-friendly tool to provide greater cost transparency and support a high volume of reservations.
In the end, KAYAK for Business and Blockskye launched an online booking tool for PwC employees that provides seamless travel booking — a tool improved a better online experience across devices. The solution operates on distributed ledger technology, which is unique because it can offer a single source of truth for information about every booking. Each party involved in travel booking and payment — across both PwC as well as travel suppliers — sees the same information in real time. Previously, this was obscured through siloed data.
Further, the booking process is streamlined, cutting intermediary fees and reducing the need to audit transactions.
PwC employees enter company billing codes when checking out, doing away with the need to individually file travel expense reports. While this feature is available currently for some airline travel, the system eventually will expand. The use of the firm’s billing codes, rather than credit card numbers, facilitates compliance, mitigating the potential for error. It also allows for immediate budget tracking.
The new booking tool is easier to use, offers more personalization and provides peace of mind that employees are complying with the firm’s travel policy. The employee traveler can change reservations in several ways — through the booking tool, the airline or with an agent. Airline loyalty programs are integrated into the system and, in fact, some of the cost savings PwC has realized are being used to enhance these programs for PwC employees. Travel perks, such as seat selection and priority boarding, are also available.
Because the new solution was such a radical shift — and a new use case for blockchain technology — change management was key. Starting more than a year ahead of the launch, the PwC team involved stakeholders, offering weekly data updates with information technology, finance and communications teams. In these updates, the team covered the number of bookings completed, issues encountered and the status of developing features.
RESULTS
From realizing significant value to disrupting corporate travel
The online booking tool handled more than a million PwC travel reservations within the first 20 months of its launch. The data suggests the PwC traveler experience has significantly improved. Within the first six months of its use, the volume of calls for traveler support dropped by more than 20% on an average day. Further, PwC’s employee experience on those calls has improved. With the previous supplier, 70% of calls were answered in 30 seconds. Now, at least 80% of calls are resolved within 20 seconds.
Beyond traveler satisfaction, the online booking tool is proving its value. Since implementing the new booking tool, PwC has already realized more than $1M in ticket savings due to the online booking tool. The tool has led to improved transparency, pricing, inventory and supplier agreements. Since PwC implemented the solution, the number of travel suppliers who are eager to participate continues to expand, offering the firm and its employees more options — and potentially additional cost savings that can be converted to traveler experience benefits, such as double award miles.
Leveraging PwC’s long history of helping clients with complex systems integration and organizational change management, the team was able to implement their vision and accelerate the business travel transformation. This also led to a lasting culture shift within PwC’s Procurement, Travel and Finance teams. The initial challenge has inspired a pragmatic spirit that continues to refine and enhance the solution. As the PwC team continues to document the tool’s value, it’s inspiring collaboration across the firm to package what we’ve learned to help other companies leverage KAYAK for Business: Enterprise to streamline their corporate travel.
PwC’s online booking tool reduces costs, increases data transparency, simplifies compliance and enhances employee experience. Travel plays a vital role in PwC’s business. Piloting the tool in-house offers PwC unique practical insight into its use, offering a powerful template for companies to revolutionize corporate travel.
AN INSIDER’S LOOK INTO PwC’s JOURNEY
Go behind the scenes with KAYAK and Blockskye as they challenge the status quo of the corporate travel ecosystem.
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